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| ZOE GETS NETTLED |
| Sailor here. The other day Zoe and I were running around in the backyard, our favorite thing to do. Zoe loves to play chase. Sometimes she gets to chase and sometimes I get to chase. She likes to shoulder me to the side because she pretends we are harnessed to a dog sled and she is the leader and gets to choose what direction we run. Siberians are like that. I like to shove her around in circles and bite her in the butt because I am pretending that she is a sheep and I am herding her. Collies are like THAT. Anyway, she was getting a little out of hand, so I tried my outdoor calming signals on her. I reached down and grabbed a mouthful of grass. I suggest only doing this on the lawn; it doesn�t work so well in the driveway. Zoe calmed right down and I was able to catch her and herd her around in circles. Since she wanted to run in a straight line (Siberians are like that), she tried her calming signals on me. She reached down to snatch up some grass but snatched something else instead. She came running back across the lawn pawing at her lips and drooling a little. �OWWWWWW!� she said, �What�s wrong with my mouth? It is trying to burn a hole into my olfactory passages!� Well, she actually said, �YOOOWWWER! Murffle gurffle yowp yorp,� but I knew what she meant. Then she went running up to Mom. If anything goes wrong, Mom can fix it. Mom said, �Oh, Zoe, did you chomp a nettle?� She inspected Zoe�s lips and turned on the hose and squirted cold water into Zoe�s mouth. That was a pretty good calming signal. Zoe sat down. Then Mom went inside and brought out a bunch of ice cubes. Zoe loves to eat ice cubes. I love to play nose hockey. So while Zoe ate ice cubes, I scored goal after goal until my puck melted. Mom put on her gardening gloves and grabbed something that sounds like towel but that is not soft and flappy and marched across the lawn and killed the nettle. I wanted to sniff it, but she wouldn�t let me. She threw it into the garbage can and spent the rest of the daylight inspecting the yard for nettle relatives. Zoe and I went back to playing sled dog. Sailor the hockey star and Zoe the unnettled sled dog |
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